By Louise Witt
After a summer of protests, marches and meetings following George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis on Memorial Day, Black Lives Matter Morristown activists took to the town’s streets again on Saturday to urge young Americans of color and their white supporters to fight for racial justice, police accountability, and a more inclusive society.
Even though thousands attended Black Live Matters events in New Jersey and millions participated in marches around the country, local activists said they have a long battle ahead to address systemic racism in housing, policing, criminal justice and education.
About 200 people marched in the final protest of the summer, which began in Collinsville Park on Martin Luther King Avenue in Morris Township, wound its way around the historic Morristown Green past the Morris County Courthouse, and concluded on the field behind Morristown High School’s football stadium.
Black Lives Matter march and teach-in Morristown, Aug. 22, 2020. Video playlist by Louise Witt for MorristownGreen.com. Click icon upper right to scroll through clips:
“Nothing has changed,” said Lawrence Hamm, a former candidate for the U.S. Senate who spoke at a Black Lives Matter rally in May, after Floyd’s death.
“The officers that killed George Floyd have not gone to trial. The people who killed Ahmaud Arbery have not gone to trial. They haven’t even charged the officers who killed Breonna Taylor. And there have been many other police shootings since then. So, nothing really has changed.”
“The only good thing I can say about this is that young people here in Morristown continue to march and continue to organize. That is the most potent weapon we have in the struggle against police brutality. I am so proud of them today and I hope they keep up this great work.”
Billed as a “Liberation Homecoming,” the event was organized with help from the Morristown-based Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center.
Marchers along the route chanted “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “Fire, fire, gentrifier, Black people used to live here.”
Passing the Morris County Courthouse, they shouted: “Hey Knapp, you’re about to lose your job!” Morris Prosecutor Fredric Knapp is a holdover appointment from former Gov. Chris Christie’s administration.
According to New Jersey Together, a coalition of religious organizations and nonprofits with 18 member groups in Morris, Blacks in Morris County are 22 times more likely than whites to land in state prison.
Black Lives Matter Morristown has challenged the county’s investigation of the death of Amani Kildea, a 20-year-old Black man found hanging in Lewis Morris Park in June.
Activists in Black Lives Matter Morristown march express disapproval of the Morris prosecutor, Aug. 22, 2020. Video by Kelly Montes:
As she tended to a muscle cramp half way through the march, T’Anna Kimbrough, one of the organizers and a founder of Black Lives Matter Morristown, said she was upset many area residents expressed concern on Morristown Green about the march forcing streets to be closed.
“A lot came from people in our community and neighboring communities that was calling us terrorists, they were calling us an annoyance, they were telling us we were not oppressed,” she said. “They didn’t want us here.”
Later at the rally at Morristown High School, Kimbrough told participants that she was undeterred in her efforts to fight racism in Morristown and the community.
“I’m not intimidated,” she said. “Nobody scares me no more. I’m dangerous. I have nothing to lose, but my chains.”
T’ANNA KIMBROUGH ON THE MORRISTOWN GREEN PODCAST
MORE COVERAGE OF BLACK LIVES MATTER MORRISTOWN
All lives matter.